Jump before we fall
by DahliaRose83
Summary: Alaric's evil alter ego is a danger to all vampires. To protect those he loves he secretly leaves Mystic Falls, never to return. But Damon won't let his best friend go like that. (Of course set in Season 3)
1. Chapter 1

I found this on my Computer the other day. It was written ages ago. No idea why I never managed to post it until now. The title was borrowed from German singer/songwriter Michael Schulte. I always have trouble finding titles, so I mostly just borrow song-titles.

And of course I own nothing.

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Jump before we fall

Damon was awoken by the persistent ringing of his cell phone. Grumbling he cast a look at the display and sighed in annoyance when he spied Elena´s name. For a second he was tempted to just ignore the call. He had no desire to talk to her right now. But she wouldn´t give in so easily. She would probably stop by the boarding house to annoy him in person. So he heaved a resigned sigh and answered his phone.

"Finally! What the hell took you so long?" the brunette snapped at him. "I was sleeping. What do you want?" Damon snarked back. "Sleeping? It´s 7:30 am." Okay, usually he was already awake at this time in the morning. But after all that shit with the originals and their crazy mommy the last few days he found that he deserved a bit peace and quiet. And aside from that it was not Elena´s business when he got up.

"What do you want?" he asked again, not even bothering to hide his annoyance. "Alaric is gone." That one sentence roused him from his stupor immediately. "What do you mean, he´s gone?" he asked, getting up quickly. "He packed his things and snuck out during the night." All of a sudden Elena sounded lost and frightened.

"Maybe he just went back to his flat." the vampire mused. He wouldn´t blame Ric. Who would want to spend 24 hours a day with the Gilbert siblings? "No, he... he left a note. He´s gone Damon. And he doesn´t plan on coming back." For a moment Damon could only stand there and stare off into space. Ric couldn´t just leave. That wasn´t like him at all. He would never leave Elena and the others alone to fend for themselves. Only if... he thought they would be better off without him.

"I'll be there in a moment." the dark-haired vampire finally promised, hanging up before Elena had the chance to say anything. He got dressed quickly, before jumping into his car and driving over to the Gilbert-house. Elena opened the door and led him into the kitchen. She looked like she´d been crying. Caroline, Bonnie and Stefan were already gathered in the kitchen and Damon was a little surprised to see his brother. Sure, Stefan was over the whole ripper-phase by now, but as far as the older Salvatore knew, his relationship with Elena was still a little tense. But he had no time to ponder his brothers relationship-problems, because Elena was holding a slip of paper in her trembling hands. He took it from her and started reading:

 _Dear Elena,_

 _when you read this I´ve already been gone for a few hours and hopefully far away from Mystic Falls. I'm sorry for sneaking off in the middle of the night and without saying goodbye. I knew you would never let me go. But I have to go. Bonnie´s herbs are no longer helping. I can feel it. I'm afraid that it´s only a matter of time until my evil alter ego gains control over my body again. I'm a danger to you and everybody else. As much as it pains me to leave you alone to deal with this mess, I see no other solution. I will go as far away as I can, hoping that I can protect you from my evil self by doing so. Please forgive me. I always wanted the best for you and I think you´re better off without me. All of you. Tell the others I´m sorry and I´ll miss you. All of you. Please don´t go looking for me. Just let me go. Goodbye_

 _Alaric._

Damon put the letter down and swallowed hard against the sudden lump in his throat. It was typically Alaric. Sacrificing himself in order to protect everyone else. "He left his ring here. And his phone." Elena whispered. Not surprising. Ric didn´t plan on coming back. That much had been clear from the letter. He was trying to protect them.

Damon´s eyes sought Bonnie. "Can you track him down?" The witch nodded. "I already did. He´s in Ohio at the moment." Damon didn´t think twice about what he was going to do. "I'm starting right now. Let me know when his position changes." Ric surely wouldn´t stay in one place long, but he was nowhere near as reckless a driver as Damon was. And he would need to rest more than the vampire. With a little luck Damon would catch up with him quickly. Getting Ric to come back home with him would be a lot more difficult. But he would think of something. No-one could match the stubbornness of Damon Salvatore. Not even Ric. So there was only one thing left to ask:

"Will you be okay without me?" He didn´t want an honest answer. Of course they needed him. With Ric gone all the more. But he would go, whether the answer was yes or no. Like expected they all nodded. "Esther is still in hiding, after her plan backfired. And I´m sure we can somehow come to an agreement with the originals." Stefan assured.

They would have no other choice, now that they knew they couldn´t simply kill the Mikaelsons without endangering their own lives. "We´ll be okay. Just take care of Ric." Elena pleaded. "I'll bring him back." Damon promised, ignoring the strange look his brother was giving him. He wasn´t sure if Stefan simply didn´t want him promising something he might not be able to keep or if Stefan was afraid he was only doing this for Elena. It didn´t matter either way. Damon didn´t plan on returning without Ric. And not because Elena wanted it, but because he wanted it.

"I´ll keep searching for a cure for his problem and I will check his position regularly and send you updates." Bonnie promised. Damon thanked her and jumped back into his car. After a short stop at the boarding house, where he hastily packed a few things and gulped down a blood-bag he set off towards Ohio.

###

Luckily the streets were pretty deserted this early in the morning, so Damon made good time. For a few hours he concentrated on nothing but the road, completely ignoring the scenery rushing by. He had no idea how he was going to make Alaric come back home with him. Ric was convinced that he was a danger to Damon and the others. And the biggest problem was that he was probably right.

If Bonnie`s witchy herbs were no longer working no-one could tell when Ric`s evil alter ego would show up again. And who would die this time. The teacher still had a white oak stake hidden somewhere, which made him dangerous to all vampires. But still Damon wasn´t about to let him leave like that. They would find a solution somehow. He was sure of it. Bonnie kept searching through her grimoires and had also asked a few other witches for help. Damon himself had called every witch he knew and begged for help. One of them would find the right spell. Now he only had to make Ric see sense.

Around noon he stopped to fuel up his car and take a look at his phone. Bonnie had sent him a text with Ric`s current position. He kept going, but he wasn´t as far ahead of Damon as he had been. Once again the vampire steered his Camaro back onto the street. He reached Ohio by nightfall. But Ric was still some distance ahead of him. After another glance at his phone Damon drove the whole night through.

On the next morning he stopped at another gas station to fuel up and find himself a snack. The plump 40-something guy behind the counter wasn´t really his preferred type, but he didn´t want to waste precious time. And he was hungry. The tension combined with the fact that he´d been driving almost 24 hours straight took their toll on him. At least Bonnie´s next text gave him hope. He was getting closer.

It was early afternoon when he finally reached Detroit, about 20 minutes after the last text had told him this was Ric´s current position. He parked his car and called the witch. "I'm in Detroit. Can you tell me where exactly Ric is right now?" he asked. Bonnie asked him to wait a second, while she did a locator spell. "I´ll send you the exact location." she promised before hanging up. Only a few minutes later he received the promised text and quickly steered the Camaro back onto the street.

He followed the main street for a few miles, before heading left into a smaller street. Shortly after he went left again and then right. He passed the railway station and ended up in a rather shady part of town. Frowning he checked the text again, but he was really where Bonnie had told him he´d find Alaric. Another text let him know that the teacher hadn´t moved.

The address turned out to be a run down bar of sorts. The vampire parked his car, shook his head over Ric´s bad choice and got out. The peeling paint, cracked window and the trash strewn everywhere didn´t give the best impression and it only got worse when he actually entered the bar. Heads turned in his direction and all of the shady looking characters stared unabashed while he made his way inside. More than one seemed to be contemplating if Damon was worse robbing.

He ignored the strange looks he received and let his eyes roam through the sparsely lit room. Ric wasn´t sitting at the shabby counter, nor at one of the old, dirty tables, which raised the vampire´s suspicion. He had a bad feeling about this. With baited breath he listened for any sort of noise in and around the bar. What he heard made his blood run cold. It was a scream of anguish. And the voice belonged to Alaric.

Without pausing to think he followed the sound, past the counter and the toilets to an old, scratched door, that was almost falling from its hinges. He burst through the door and found himself in some sort of backyard, littered with trash and dirt. But that wasn´t what made him stop dead in his tracks.

Alaric was lying face down on the dirty ground. Two men fled the scene as soon as they spotted Damon. The vampire ran to his friend´s side and dropped to his knees next to him. The smell of blood and Ric´s laboured breathing told him how badly the teacher was wounded, even before he turned him around and saw the damage. It looked like someone had stabbed him repeatedly with a knife. His shirt was completely torn and soaked with blood.

When Damon turned him onto his back, Ric coughed weakly and blood poured out of his mouth. The vampire knew instantly that the knife had punctured a lung. The injury was serious. Deadly so. Ric´s eyes were open, but they were unfocused and he didn´t seem to recognize the vampire. He fought weakly against his grip, coughing up even more blood in the process.

Damon didn´t waste any time. He tore into his own wrist and pressed it against Ric´s lips. "Drink." he ordered harshly, his voice shaking with fear. He didn´t know if Ric understood or if he was just too weak to fight him. He didn´t know if Ric even recognized him. He just knew that after a few tense seconds the teacher finally started swallowing.

Alaric´s breath was coming in ragged gasps and his skin felt too cool to the touch. Again he coughed up blood. Damon felt totally helpless. Once again he tore into his wrist and made his friend swallow his blood. "Ric, come on. Don´t do this to me. Please." he begged. But the teacher didn´t seem to hear him. Slowly his eyes fell closed and suddenly it was way too quiet.


	2. Chapter 2

Elena was pacing nervously inside her bedroom, cell phone pressed tightly to her ear. If he didn´t answer soon she would surely go mad. Since yesterday afternoon she hadn´t heard any news from Damon. According to Bonnie he had caught up to Alaric. The witch had sent him the exact location of the teacher and then... nothing.

In the evening Elena had forced Bonnie to do another locator spell, but the witch had suddenly been unable to find Alaric. She had tried twice more, but with the same result. There was no explanation. Bonnie supposed Ric´s evil alter ego may have broken free again and was now blocking her, but Elena couldn´t shake the feeling that there might another explanation the witch didn´t want to give her. Which made her anxiety rise even more. And it didn´t help matters that Damon wouldn´t answer his damn phone!

Then finally, just when she was about to give up and give in to a full fledged panic attack she heard his voice: "Elena..." She breathed a sigh of relief, but the relief quickly turned into anger. "Damon, damn it! Why the hell didn´t you answer your phone? I was going sick with worry. Bonnie can´t locate Ric any more and..." She felt Stefan´s hand on her arm and took a deep breath, realizing that her voice had risen continually and taken on a shrill edge. "Please, tell me you found him." she continued a little more quietly.

"I found him." At least the answer she had wanted to hear. Elena breathed another sigh of relief. But soon anxiety caught up with her. "What happened? Is he okay? Did his alter ego take over his body again?" she fired only the first few questions running through her mind. "Everything´s fine, Elena." Damon said, avoiding a direct answer. "Did his alter ego..." she tried again, but he interrupted her: "No, really. Everything´s fine."

His voice sounded strange and Elena couldn´t shake the feeling that he was keeping something from her. "Damon, what´s going on? What happened? Is Ric really okay?" she prodded. There was a tense silence on the other end of the line. "Elena, listen... We .. won´t come home right away." Damon´s hesitant words made her panic rise again. "But why? What´s wrong? What are you not telling me?" she demanded to know. "I... Let me talk to Stefan for a second."

Elena couldn´t stifle a sob. "Oh god, he´s dead, isn´t he? It´s all my fault. I forced him to stay and take care of us and..." Damon said nothing, but suddenly there was another voice: "I'm okay, Elena. Don´t worry." She sobbed again, but this time in relief. "Ric! Thank god. Please come home." She didn´t care that she sounded like a frightened little girl. She was so terribly lonely.

Jeremy was in Denver, far away from the chaos of Mystic Falls and hopefully safe. Bonnie was still mad at her for sending Jeremy away and Caroline had enough problems of her own, so Elena didn´t want to bother her as well. And her relationship with Stefan was still tense. Even though she still loved him, it was hard to forgive him. He had forced her to swallow his blood and had threatened to drive her off Wickery bridge. The same bridge where her parents had died. Where she had almost died. She wouldn´t be able to get past that so easily.

She wanted Alaric back, who had become some sort of father-figure for her. She wanted Damon back, whom she viewed as a big brother of sorts, since she had gotten past her silly crush on him (She hadn´t told him yet and didn´t know what he thought of the matter. But he had stopped flirting with her weeks ago, which made her believe he might feel the same way.).

"I can´t, Elena. Not yet. I need time." Ric murmured apologetically and before she could reply he had handed the phone back to Damon. "We´ll come back as soon as we can. You'll manage without us for a while. Tell Stefan he´s in charge and I expect him not to fuck it up, okay?" the dark-haired vampire asked.

She wanted to say no. She wanted to yell at him and tell him that they wouldn´t manage on their own. She had no-one but him and Ric at the moment. She needed them. But she knew that she wouldn´t be able to change their mind. "Please come home soon." she whispered dejectedly. Damon didn´t answer and a second later he had hung up without saying goodbye.

Elena dropped her phone onto the bedside table and stared off into space. "Hey, we will manage without them." Stefan promised. "He said he´s going to bring Ric home." the brunette reminded stubbornly, but allowed her boyfriend to pull her into an embrace. "He will. They have their reasons for not coming back straight away, I´m sure. You know that they would never leave us alone with this mess if they didn´t have to." Of course she knew. And that frightened her. But she didn´t tell Stefan about her worries. She simply nodded and cuddled closer to him. At least she still had Stefan.

###

In a small motel room in Detroit Damon put his phone away and looked over at the man that sat huddled on the other bed. "We should have told her." Ric shook his head. "Not yet." he whispered. "She'll find out eventually. You know that. And then she´s going to be angry at us for keeping it from her." the dark-haired vampire pointed out. "I can´t go back. I´m a danger to Elena. To all of you." the teacher muttered without looking at him.

"Maybe the problem has solved itself now." Damon suggested hopefully. But Alaric shook his head. "Or maybe the other me is even more dangerous now." Damon stifled a sigh. Not this discussion again. "We can´t know that. Let´s go home and ask Bonnie. You need..." But his friend didn´t let him finish. "No! I can´t go back." His eyes darted to Damon for a second and the fear and desperation in them nearly broke his heart.

"You go back." the teacher ordered. "Forget it. I'm not leaving you here. Either we go back together, or neither of us goes back." Damon insisted. Ric averted his eyes, stared at the small sliver of daylight falling in through the gap in the heavy curtains. "You don´t have to stay with me. I won´t do anything stupid. You´re not responsible for me, just because it was your blood that..." He stopped, unable to finish the sentence. But Damon knew what he meant.

For a second his thoughts drifted back to that dark, dirty backyard. To the moment when Ric´s heart had stopped beating. He couldn´t tell how long he´d just sat there, tears streaming down his face, staring at the too still body of his best friend. Until he´d suddenly remembered that he had given Ric his blood before he died.

"I´m staying with you. But not, because I feel responsible. Because my blood turned you. I´m staying because you´re my friend. My best friend. You taught me that friends are there for each other in times of need." he finally replied. Alaric didn´t say anything, but Damon thought he looked less gloomy.

After a few moments of tense silence Damon got up. "Can I leave you alone for a while, without having to fear you´ll do something stupid?" He was glad to get a typical, annoyed Alaric-look in response to his question. "Don´t worry. I'll keep away from the sun. And I won´t try to run away. Promise." the teacher grumbled. "Good. I´ll get dinner, then. See you soon." The dark-haired vampire cast one last, critical look in his friends direction before leaving the room.

Alaric didn´t move from his position on the bed. He kept staring at that little spot of sunlight, while he tried to clear his head. He hadn´t really had a plan when he´d left the Gilbert-house in the middle of the night. He had driven to the railway station, left his car there and gotten on the first train he´d found. Somewhere in Ohio he had changed into another train, which had taken him to Detroit. Once there he had learned that he would have to wait at least two hours for the next train to bring him even further away from Mystic Falls. So he had put his bag into a locker and just started walking, without paying attention to where he was going.

Getting drunk had sounded like a good idea, so he had entered the first bar he´d come across. That this bar didn´t look inviting at all hadn´t bothered him back then. He couldn´t really remember how he´d gotten into a fight with those two guys. He hadn't´t been that drunk, but then again maybe they had attacked him for the fun of it. He just knew that they had dragged him out to the backyard, while the other patrons had looked away and pretended not to notice.

At first he had held his ground fairly well. He was used to fighting vampires after all. He was pretty sure that he had broken the nose of one of his attackers. But then the other one had drawn a knife and stabbed him. The pain was pretty much the last thing he really remembered. Vaguely he thought he had heard Damon´s voice. But he wasn´t sure. Could´ve been his imagination. On the other hand... Damon had really been there. So maybe not.

And then he had awoken in this room, with a pounding headache and a hunger he had never felt before. Damon had been sitting at his bedside, staring at him intensely. Had explained haltingly what had happened. Only after Damon had whispered: "You have to make a decision now, Ric." had the teacher noticed the girl sitting on the other bed, staring off into space.

Damon had gotten up then, had pierced her wrist with his sharp fangs and caught the blood flowing out of the wound in a glass. Once the glass had been full, he had compelled her and sent her away. Ric had never wanted to become a vampire. And he knew that his evil alter ego would be even more dangerous as a vampire. And Damon hadn´t forced him. Hadn´t even rushed him and Alaric had remembered the vampire once telling him about his own transition.

Stefan had forced his brother to drink back then. Ric knew that his friend would never do the same to him. The decision was his to make. Damon hadn´t said a word. He had simply held the glass out to him with a trembling hand. In the end it had been the look in Damon´s eyes that made Ric grab the glass and down the blood. The dark-haired vampire had looked so scared and nearly devastated that it had broken his heart. So Ric had chosen to turn.

He jumped in shock when the door opened upon Damon´s return. The ray of sunlight had disappeared. Alaric hadn´t even noticed the time go by. When the older vampire had said dinner he had expected another girl. Maybe a boy. But not blood-bags and certainly not "Pizza?".

Damon shrugged and handed him one of the blood-bags. "There´s an Asian restaurant around the corner, but it didn´t look inviting." he murmured, emptying a blood-bag himself. Slowly Alaric opened his own blood-bag and gingerly brought it to his lips. The smell of the blood alone was enough to awaken this scary, intense hunger again. He could feel his fangs clicking into place and winced. It didn´t exactly hurt, but it still felt strange and foreign.

"Slowly." Damon cautioned and Ric tried his best to take little sips, no matter how hard it was not to gulp the blood down in one go. He was so hungry it was almost painful and the blood tasted so heavenly. After he had sucked the last drop from the bag, Damon handed him another one. "It´s okay. Drink. You need it." he urged quietly. Ric emptied the second blood-bag and sighed in relief when the hunger finally subsided.

"Where did you get those?" he asked, taking a slice of pizza and noting with surprise that pizza tasted just like it always had. "There´s a hospital two blocks from here." the dark-haired vampire explained. "Thought you´d prefer this to fresh from the vein. At least at first." Alaric nodded his thanks, accepted the beer Damon was handing him and took a big gulp. They ate in silence, each lost in thought.

Afterwards Damon glanced out of the window. "It´s almost dusk. As soon as the sun sets we can go to the railway station and get your bag. But I think I´ll better go in alone. Wouldn´t want to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves." he said with a pointed look at the teacher. Ric only nodded. His shirt had been so torn and stained with his own blood that he´d had to throw it away. So he sat here bare-chested, wearing a pair of jeans that was dirty from the fight.

"I could just give you the key and you can go without me." he suggested. He didn´t feel like leaving this room anyways. Despite the fact that the two blood-bags had taken the edge off his cravings, he didn´t want to risk it. It was all too new and too strange. He could hear the heart-beat of the guy next door. Could hear his heavy steps, as he walked around the room, muttering to himself. Could almost smell his blood. And it scared him.

"No, I want to head off straight away. Since we have to find a new motel before dawn we don´t have much time. I mean, we can´t risk you getting extra crispy, right?" Damon joked. "I told you, I don´t want go home." the new vampire protested. "Who said anything about going home? We`re going to Louisiana." Alaric blinked at his friend, not really comprehending what he was hearing. " Louisiana?" he repeated dumbly.

"We need to find out if your crazy alter ego is still there. And you need a daylight ring. For both things we need a witch and I think I know just the right one." the dark-haired vampire mused. "I called her last week to ask for help with your little problem." For a moment Alaric felt speechless. He hadn´t thought Damon would call old contacts to help him. The older vampire was always good for a surprise.

"Okay, it´s dark enough. Let´s go." Damon urged after a while. They left the hotel and got into the Camaro. After a short stop at the railway station they started their road trip to Louisiana. Ric took a shirt from his bag and pulled it on. Damon was glad that the teacher was no longer sitting next to him half-naked. The sight of Ric´s naked chest was way too tempting and always made him want to run his fingers through the chest hair or trace Ric´s abs with his tongue.

It was hard to behave himself, but he was afraid Ric would be shocked if he should ever act upon this impulse. He had never shown any interest in deepening their friendship in that way, after all. As far as Damon knew, Ric was a hundred percent straight. The teacher had never reacted to his subtle hints and Damon was too scared of losing his best friend to try and be a little less subtle.

###

They drove the whole night and didn´t talk much. Damon knew that his friend had a lot to think about right now and he wanted to give him time to come to terms with everything. Around 5:00 am he pulled into the parking lot of another motel and got them a double room. While Ric was in the shower Damon pulled the heavy curtains closed and made sure no errant ray of sunlight could get to his friend.

When Ric emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later it was completely dark in the small room. "Try to get some sleep. We`ll head off again as soon as the sun is down." The teacher nodded and crawled into bed. Damon decided to save the shower for later, sent a quick text to Elena, in the hope of comforting her a little and went to bed as well.


	3. Chapter 3

Ric awoke early in the afternoon to find Damon still asleep. The teacher turned onto his side and used the rare chance to watch him. Damon looked so cute and innocent when he slept. Ric shook his head over his own, weird thoughts, but he couldn´t take his eyes off the older vampire. He had realized quite a while ago that he felt more for Damon than just friendship, but he had never dared to act upon his feelings. There had always been too much keeping him from doing so.

Of course there was the fact that they were both male. Okay, so he didn´t care about things like gender when it came to love, but what about Damon? And even if Damon was actually interested, something he was never really sure of, it would still be difficult. Mystic Falls was a small southern town. People would talk. Ric was a teacher after all and he could picture the reaction of some parents all too clearly.

Then there was the fact that Damon was in love with Elena. An even greater obstacle. Because how should Ric compete with the beautiful brunette, who looked exactly like Damon´s first, true love Katherine? Easy. He couldn´t.

And although Elena had told him a little over a week ago that she had finally gotten her conflicting feelings for the Salvatore brothers sorted out – that she was in love with Stefan and always would be – that didn´t change the way Damon felt about her. Okay, she claimed that Damon had taken on the role of her surrogate older brother quite willingly and had stopped flirting with her, but Alaric still wasn´t convinced.

Even if she was right and Damon felt nothing but friendship for her, there had still been one more big obstacle. The biggest of all. Alaric was human and Damon was a vampire. It would never work out. But now that had changed and the teacher was left with the decision once more: Take a chance or keep quiet?

"How long have you been staring at me?" Damon´s voice suddenly cut through his thoughts. Ric felt himself blushing. He hadn´t noticed the dark-haired vampire waking up. "Uhm..." he muttered dumbly, unable to form a coherent sentence. Damn it, he couldn´t concentrate while Damon was watching him with his trademark smirk playing about his lips. When he looked so cute, with his hair tousled from sleep. And to make matters even worse the covers had slipped down to his waist, giving Ric a clear view of his naked, defined chest.

"No idea. I was.. lost in thought." he finally muttered. "Must´ve been an interesting thought." the dark-haired vampire joked, stretching languidly, before getting out of bed. "I´m going to take a shower." Alaric just nodded dumbly and tried very hard not to stare at his best friend´s ass or even worse, imagine Damon standing under the shower spray, water cascading down his perfect body... Why the hell did Damon have to sleep in nothing but a pair of skimpy black shorts? And why did he have to strut into the bathroom like an underwear model? Groaning Ric lay back on the bed and pulled the covers over his head. This was going to be a long journey.

###

After both had showered and gotten dressed, Damon ordered room service. It took some coaxing to get Alaric to drink straight from the page who brought their dinner, but once he had his fangs in the guy´s wrist, he just couldn´t stop. The hot, fresh blood tasted way too good. Damon had to tell him to stop twice and almost tear him away from the poor boy in the end. Realizing what he had almost done, Alaric felt horrible. The dark-haired vampire just patted his back sympathetically and promised it would get easier in time. He gave the boy a generous tip and they ate their steaks, before setting out shortly after sunset.

###

The next couple of days proved pretty much the same. They drove the whole night and checked into a motel shortly before sunrise, where they got some sleep. Alaric had realized with surprise, that he didn´t need much sleep any more But it whiled away the time, so he tried to sleep as long as he could. Later in the day Damon would leave for a while to get something to eat and their daily ration of blood. Sometimes they were lucky and found a hospital or a blood bank nearby. Alaric was always glad about that.

But he didn´t complain when Damon brought back a frat girl instead of the blood-bags he´d been hoping for. He was slowly getting used to feeding from people and it was getting easier to stop in time. But he was still glad about Damon watching him like a hawk while he fed, ready to jump in and stop him in time.

They left the motel after sunset to continue on their way, slowly getting closer to their destination. Alaric was still scared that his evil alter ego would take over his body any day now. He hadn´t gotten a new dose of Bonnie´s herbs in days, so the effect had probably long since worn off. Damon had talked to his witch friend on the phone (the one they would be visiting) and spoken to her about it. She believed that turning might have cured the teacher somehow. But she had also warned that they couldn´t be sure until she had seen him in person.

Damon hoped with all his might that her theory would prove true. That Ric was really back to himself. But that wasn´t really true, either. He would never be his old self again. He was a vampire now and he had yet to accept that fact and all the consequences it brought. The older vampire could practically see a thousand questions running through his friend´s head, but he never asked anything.

The whole thing was terribly hard on him and Damon didn´t know how to help him. He hoped it would get easier once they could be sure that the evil alter ego was gone. Once Ric had a daylight ring. Although they never talked about it and Ric never complained, he could see that the teacher missed the sun. When they were sitting in their room during the day he could see Ric´s eyes straying to the windows longingly every once in a while. Damon hated seeing him like this.

At least the teacher had learned to stay away from the window, after burning his hand once. He always kept a certain distance now and Damon always chose the bed that was closer to the windows and made sure that no errant ray of sunlight could sneak into the room and endanger his friend.

He had talked to Elena twice since that first phone-call. The brunette had noticed that something was off. She kept pestering him to tell her the truth and always asked to speak to Ric as well, but he still insisted on keeping his turning a secret. He had murmured a few soothing words each time, before handing the phone back to Damon, which only served to raise Elena´s suspicion even more. Yesterday she had practically begged them to come home.

She had sounded like a scared, little girl and it had pained Damon to say no to her. Despite the fact that he had realized quite a while ago that his feelings for her had never been real. He had loved the picture of Katherine. That was all. Only after she had kissed him, that night she had thought he was dying had he finally realized it. She was a good girl. Stefan´s girl. Never his. She was just too good, too perfect for him. They would´ve never worked out.

That night she had kissed him he had been thinking of someone else. He had wanted someone else at his side, in his dying moment. Not Katherine. He had finally gotten over his weird obsession for her. No, fate was even more cruel than that. Because what his heart really desired was his best friend.

He had felt drawn to Alaric for quite a while now. Maybe right from the start. The fact that the teacher was male didn´t matter to him. Damon might have grown up in a time where his father would have beaten him just for the thought, but that time was long over. He wouldn´t have cared what society dictated or people thought back then. He cared even less now.

But Alaric seemed to care. Why else had he never reacted to Damon´s cautious, admittedly often drunk flirting? Was he really not the slightest bit interested? Damon had to admit that he just didn´t know. Sometimes he was sure that Ric was just completely straight and didn´t see him like that. But then the teacher did something that made him question all that again. Like watching him sleep or staring at his ass. Yes, Damon had noticed. He just didn´t know what to make of it. And it was driving him insane.

But as long as Ric didn´t give him any clear hints he wouldn´t do anything either. Their friendship was too important to jeopardize. The dark-haired vampire had never had many friends. Not even back in his human days. He cherished the fact that finally there was someone who always had his back. Someone he could trust blindly. Someone who understood him, who didn´t judge him and didn´t even begrudge his little outbursts. At least not for long. Someone who was always there when he needed him.

He couldn´t imagine his life without Alaric. So he wouldn´t do anything and keep his mouth shut and they would stay friends. Maybe it was better that way. Because really, what had love gotten him so far? He had estranged himself from his baby brother and spent 145 years pining after some manipulative, little slut, who had never cared for him. As long as they were friends, Ric would always be there for him. Of that he was sure. And maybe that was enough.


	4. Chapter 4

Alaric was sitting on a bed, in some motel in some nameless city. He was pretty sure that Damon had told him exactly where they were. But he hadn´t been paying attention. He had drowned him out, like he did often lately. His gaze was fixed on the curtains, keeping the sunlight out and he had to fight the stupid urge to pull them open. He knew that he would just hurt himself. He remembered the pain of the burn clearly. Not something he wanted to experience again. But he missed the sun on his skin. So much.

Some days he could actually relate to those vampires who shut off their feelings. Everything was heightened. He had heard that phrase often before, but only now did he realize what it meant. Every feeling, every thought, every longing was just so much sharper. So much more intense. He could understand that for some it would be too hard to lead a lonely life in the shadows, cast out from society.

Damon´s return shook him out of his dark thoughts and reminded him of the fact that at least he wasn´t alone. His best friend was right there with him, doing everything he could to help. To make his new life – or rather unlife – easier for him. And Alaric was eternally grateful for that.

The dark-haired vampire had been gone longer than the previous days. Ric sighed in relief when he spotted the blood-bags. "There´s a blood bank a few blocks away." the older vampire explained, sitting down next to Ric and handing him one of the bags. The feeling of his fangs clicking into place was still strange, but he was slowly getting used to it. And it was getting easier to keep the blood lust at bay. The fact that they emptied at least two bottles of bourbon each day probably helped as well.

The teacher took the blood-bag and drank slowly in careful sips, like Damon had taught him. "We´ll be there soon." the dark-haired vampire murmured after they had finished with the blood. "We´ll have to avoid New Orleans. The town is crawling with witches and not all of them are friendly. And I heard rumours that the vampire population has gotten pretty big over the last couple of years. I don´t want to take unnecessary risks. But we should reach our destination before sunrise."

Alaric wasn´t sure how to feel about that. On the one hand he wanted to know once and for all if his evil side was really gone. The uncertainty was driving him insane. On the other hand he was afraid of the answer. "What if he´s not gone?" he asked quietly. "He is gone." Damon insisted. "You can´t know that. Just because he kept quiet for a few days... Maybe he´s just waiting for you to get him a daylight ring." The thought was scarier than he wanted to admit.

Damon looked directly into his eyes. "He is gone." he repeated. "And even if he´s not... We´ll find a way to get rid of him for good." He sounded completely certain of that. Ric couldn´t find a reply. He could only stare right back at his best friend. At those beautiful blue eyes he felt he would one day drown in. They sat like that for a few minutes. In the end it was Damon who averted his eyes. "The sun has set." he noticed. "Let´s go." They took their bags and left the motel to continue their journey.

###

It was about 5:00 am when they finally reached a small Farm on the outskirts of Covington. Damon parked in the driveway and got out of the car. Alaric followed him hesitantly, feeling incredibly nervous all of a sudden. The front door opened before they had even reached it and a plump, middle aged woman appeared in the doorway. Her flaming red hair was pulled back in a long braid and she was wearing a long white nightgown.

"You´re earlier than I expected." she greeted the two vampires with a friendly smile. "Heather, it´s been too long. You look stunning." Damon commented with a grin. "Still charming as ever, I see." Heather shot back, shaking her head fondly. The dark-haired vampire introduced her to Ric, who realized that she was the witch his friend had been talking about. She was not what he´d been expecting.

She invited the two vampires into her house without a second thought and led them to the kitchen, where she served coffee. "I´ve asked the members of my coven to gather here tonight. Then we can make sure that your evil self is really gone for good." Heather explained, once they had all taken a seat at the table. "Do you really think my alter ego has just disappeared?" Alaric asked, still a little doubtful of that theory.

"Yes, I do. You surely know that we have discussed your problem and searched for a cure. I think we found the spell which created your alter ego, as you call it. If I´m right, the spell was bound to your mortality and to the ring. Since you died without the ring the spell has been broken." the witch explained.

"Speaking of rings... you need to make a daylight ring for Ric." Damon spoke up. Heather gave him a scolding look. "I don´t need to do anything, Damon. But if you ask me nicely..." The dark-haired vampire rolled his eyes. "Yeah, fine. Heather, please make a ring for Ric." It still sounded like an order, but the witch was obviously satisfied with the word please, because she nodded. "Of course. Did you bring a suitable ring with you?"

To Alaric´s great surprise Damon pulled a little box out of his pocket and handed it to the witch. Inside was a silver ring with a lapislazuli set in the middle. It looked a lot like Damon´s ring, expect that there was a big A instead of the D. "Where did you get that?" the teacher wanted to know. "I sent a picture of my ring to a jeweller and told him to replace the D with an A. I went to get the ring yesterday." Damon said with a shrug, like it was no big deal.

Alaric felt speechless and wondered how the dark-haired vampire always managed to surprise him. Since he didn´t object, Heather took the ring, put it onto the window sill and opened the curtains, so that a ray of sunlight fell directly onto the ring. Ric could hear her murmuring a few words he didn´t quite catch. Then she nodded in satisfaction, took the ring and handed it to him. "There you go, dear." Hesitantly he slipped it onto his finger. It fit perfectly. "Thank you." he whispered. Heather smiled. "You´re welcome. And now come on, I'll show you the guest room, before I get dressed."

###

Damon turned the shower off, wrapped a towel around his hips and stepped back into the guest room. He had been expecting to find Alaric still asleep in the big double bed that took up half the room and that he himself had left only about 20 minutes ago. If he didn´t still need her he would seriously consider ripping Heather´s throat out for forcing him to sleep this close to Ric. The teacher´s closeness had been way too tempting. Damon had wanted nothing more than to cuddle into his best friend´s arms and forget the world for a while.

In the end he had left the bed to escape the temptation. But he´d been looking forward to watching Ric sleep for a while. He hadn´t expected to find the bed empty and no trace of the teacher anywhere. Damon got dressed quickly and went in search of his friend. He didn´t find him in the kitchen or the living room and was really getting worried, when he suddenly spotted him out in the garden.

Breathing a sigh of relief he went to join him. Alaric was sitting on a bench in the sun, head tilted back, eyes closed. He didn´t move when Damon sat down next to him. "I would´ve never thought I would miss feeling the sun on my skin this badly." the teacher whispered. "You often realize only how much something means to you when you lose it." Damon agreed just as quietly.

For a while they just sat together in silence. Heather´s farm was far out of the city. The only sounds were the twittering of birds and the buzzing of bees. The whole place seemed to radiate peace and quiet and Alaric felt at ease like he hadn´t in weeks. "Why are you helping me?" he finally asked the one question that had been plaguing him for days. Damon hesitated, before turning to face him, surprised to find the teacher watching him. Their eyes met and locked.

"Because I can´t bear the thought of losing you." the dark-haired vampire replied strangely honest. Alaric could see the fear in his eyes and wondered what he was so afraid of. Was it fear of being rejected or maybe even laughed at? As good as Damon usually was at hiding his emotions, Alaric had learned to read him. Sometimes he could see every emotion clearly mirrored in those beautiful blue eyes. The silent plea in those eyes had made him complete the transition. The vulnerability he could see in them right now made him finally abandon all caution.

Slowly he leaned towards Damon. Gave him all the time in the world to stop him, should he have misinterpreted the signs after all. But Damon seemed frozen. Only when Alaric´s lips gently covered his, did he awaken from his stupor. One of his hands tangled in the teacher´s dirty blond hair, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss.

"Do you have any idea how long I´ve been waiting for you to do that?" he asked once their lips had parted. "Why did you wait for me to take the first step? Usually you don´t have any qualms about taking what you want." Ric shot back with a smirk. "Because I was never sure what you wanted. And because I've never wanted anything as much as this." the dark-haired vampire admitted. "I never knew what you really wanted either. I only knew that I wanted you. More than anything. So I always found excuses why it would never work out. But I think I´ve run out of excuses."

All the reasons that had kept him from attempting a relationship with Damon had become unimportant or simply invalid. Because in the end the only thing that really mattered was what he felt for the other vampire. "No more excuses then." Damon decided, covering Ric´s hand with his own. The teacher linked their hands together with a smile. "No more excuses. And no more uncertainty." he agreed. And that was the last thing they said for a long while, since their lips were busy with other things.


	5. Chapter 5

So, this is the last chapter. Hope you liked it and thanks for the comments.

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Alaric didn´t see Heather until early evening, when she busied herself in the kitchen and started cooking enough food to feed a small army. He watched her for a while, humming softly to herself with a soft smile on her face. She reminded him a little of his grandmother, with her flowery dress and her white apron. When he´d told Damon earlier that the witch wasn´t at all what he´d been expecting, the dark-haired vampire had merely shrugged and said: "You should´ve seen her in the seventies."

Her coven arrived just in time for dinner and Alaric got another surprise. In his mind witches had always been more or less beautiful, young women, like Bonnie and some of the witches he had seen in movies. Meeting Heather´s coven cured him of that idea quickly.

The coven consisted of 12 men and women, including Heather herself. The oldest member was a tired looking, dark-skinned guy with greying hair and glasses, who Ric guessed to be at least 80. The youngest member was Heather´s granddaughter Lucy, a fifteen year old girl with flaming red hair that reached down to her hips. Then there was a guy who looked like an accountant, two slender blonde girls, obviously twins, a young woman with short, black hair and a lot of piercings, another woman with very dark skin and seemingly endless legs, a guy in his early forties who looked like some kind of mad voodoo priest, a boy in torn jeans and a dark hoodie and two women about Heather´s age.

All of them gathered around the table for dinner and Alaric didn´t miss the curious looks the witches and warlocks directed his way. They spiked his nervousness and he was eternally grateful for Damon at his side, who kept talking, joking and flirting like always and tried his best to take the teacher´s mind off of what was to come.

Finally, when night had fallen Heather announced that it was time. Ric felt ready to burst with nervous energy. Lucy had told him exactly what would happen, but it had all sounded very vague and he didn´t really know what was coming. Also it was time to find out the truth about his evil alter ego and there was the familiar fear that the other him might still be there, lurking somewhere inside his mind.

His heart was hammering when he followed the coven to a field outside and watched them gather in a circle around Heather. Damon gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "I´ll be here the whole time." he promised. Alaric nodded, took a deep breath and then walked over to Heather. He fell to his knees in front of her, like Lucy had told him to do. Heather gave him an encouraging smile, before she started chanting softly.

One after the other the members of her coven joined in, their voices rising steadily. Ric closed his eyes and felt Heather´s hands on his temples. There was a pounding inside his head that was growing steadily worse. The chanting got ever louder, but he couldn´t make out the words. To him it sounded like waves crashing against a cliff. He tried to picture rocky cliffs and rough waves in his minds eye, but he couldn´t concentrate. There was only blackness obscuring everything else. He had no idea how much time went by. It seemed to go on forever.

But then all of a sudden the noise stopped. Ric opened his eyes and blinked up at Heather. She looked tired and a lot older than he knew her to be, but she smiled. "We were right. The other one is gone. You don´t need to worry any more You´re free of him." she assured. Alaric stumbled to his feet, tried to comprehend what she was saying. His evil alter ego was gone. He was free and no longer a threat to those he loved. Relief flooded his veins, turned to euphoria when Damon threw himself into his arms.

"See, what did I tell you?" the dark-haired vampire shouted with a grin. Ric wrapped his arms around him and pulled him even closer. "You were right." he agreed and sealed Damon´s lips with a kiss before the older vampire had a chance to gloat. When they finally broke apart they were alone. The witches had gone back to the house. "That means we can go home tomorrow." Damon mused, wrapping an arm around Alaric and leading him towards the house as well. "Yes, we can go home." the teacher agreed.

He was looking forward to it. Leaving Elena and the others to fend for themselves had been one of the hardest decisions he´d ever made. He missed the supernatural teenagers he felt somehow responsible for. But he wasn´t looking forward to telling them that he was a vampire now. And even less to telling them about his new relationship with Damon.

"We don´t have to go back straight away. We could just drive around for a while. Visit Las Vegas or something like that." Damon suggested suddenly. It was very tempting and Ric would have loved to agree. But he looked at his boyfriend and shook his head with a rueful smile. "Maybe in a few weeks or so. When things have quieted down and we can take a weekend off without having to feel guilty for it." They had responsibilities back home after all and Elena was desperately waiting for their return. "I´ll hold you to that promise. A weekend in Vegas. Just think about the possibilities, Ric. Maybe we´ll end up getting married." Damon commented with a grin.

Ric just shook his head and followed him into the house. A little over a week ago he had thought he would have to leave Mystic Falls forever. He´d thought he would never see Damon again. And now his future looked a lot brighter than it had in years. All thanks to Damon and his stubbornness. The dark-haired vampire had saved him in more ways than one.


End file.
